Archive for the ‘guest post’ Category

In March of 2006, the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency ordered a recall of four brands of beverages after laboratory tests found excessive levels of benzene, a carcinogen. Attention-grabbing headlines, like that run by the Times of London on the front page of its home news section, announced the recall: “Soft drinks pulled from shelves over cancer fear. ” (1) A textbook example of an alert government regulator, policing the safety of its food system? Well, not exactly.

As a graduate student of Public Health concentrating in Environmental Health, I find it extremely important to be aware of things in our environment that can potentially cause bodily harm and disease, in addition to finding ways to protect human health.

I am also on the path to obtaining my Registered Dietitian credential, and have consequently discovered that our bodies can receive an arsenal of health promoting weaponry from the food we eat and the compounds found within them. The combination of these two highly related disciplines has yielded two important conclusions:

The health of our food supply is highly related to the health of our environment

The food supply has become one of the biggest areas of concern regarding exposure to environmental pollutants.

This has added many layers to a question I frequently ask myself: “what can I do to protect my health?”

Andy’s “You Ask, I Answer” posts are some of my favorite Small Bites reads, so I’m thrilled the nutrition guru has turned the tables with questions of his own. Because there is no substitute for Bellatti, I’ll file my first guest blog post as “Andy Asks, I Do My Best to Answer.”

What’s the best thing to eat before a workout?

That depends on another question- what are you doing? I recently spoke to Roberta Anding, sports dietitian for the NFL’s Houston Texans, and she says duration and intensity determine fuel needs. If you’re walking on the treadmill at 3 mph for 20 minutes, pre-workout fuel isn’t necessary.

Cooks can be made, they’re not necessarily born. Sure, the innate ability to know your saute from your braise is completely natural for some people, but your chances of becoming a cook or being a better one is much greater than becoming a world class athlete or concert pianist ( believe me, I’ve tried such similar lofty attempts).

In my over 25 years of teaching, I’ve seen those in need of cooking skills go from clueless to accomplished. They all do start out with one element: the desire to learn. And beyond that, I’ve culled a list of the advice I give to my cooking newbies. Beyond these very practical tips my overall mantra is: if you fail, try, try again. Even the most seasoned cooks make tons of mistakes; and I’ve got the garbage pails of experiments gone awry to prove it.

But here now are my top tips to get you as polished as a brand new copper pot in the kitchen!

I am not a fan of any sort of “awareness” month as I find the concept trivializes important health issues. Are we only supposed to care about heart disease, diabetes, etc, during that one month of the year? And I rarely see anything of substance come from the month-long activities, just the usual ineffective educational campaigns, instead of meaningful public policy reforms. Plus many issues tend to crowd themselves into certain months, so it all becomes background noise. September is one such month. Among other causes (e.g., “cholesterol education“), September has been proclaimed “Childhood Obesity Awareness Month” by Congress and President Obama.

â€œWHY are Americans getting fatter and fatter?Â The simple explanation is that we eat too much junk food and spend too much time in front of screens â€” be they television, phone or computer â€” to burn off all those empty calories.”

I agree that, as a population, we are eating too much, but is exercise really the solution to Americaâ€™s growing obesity epidemic?

As a coach, many folks come to me for support in reaching their goals. Sometimes they are related to career. Other times, goals reference money, relationships, health and wellness, or are tied to multiple life spheres. I typically find that irrespective of the focus of the goal, goal setters usually come to me frustrated. What they have been doing hasn’t been working, and despite how important the goal is, they are ready to bang their heads against the proverbial wall.